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U.S. Awaits Iran's Response To Latest Peace-Talks Proposal; Judge Releases Purported Jeffrey Epstein Suicide Note; FDA Blocks Publication Of Vaccine Safety Studies; Dutch Woman In Hospital With Suspected Hantavirus; Homes Destroyed As Two Tornadoes Tear Across Mississippi. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired May 07, 2026 - 04:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[04:00:00]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Still, Turner often called CNN the greatest achievement of his life. And today at CNN's world headquarters in Atlanta, messages of thanks and tribute left by the staff now cover those famous three letters. A simple but powerful thank you for the vision that changed how the world sees the news.

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, everybody, I'm Polo Sandoval. 2:00 a.m. here in New York, 10:00 a.m. in Rome, and here's what's coming your way.

Donald Trump touting very good talks with Tehran as the U.S. and Iran appear closer to an agreement to end the war.

Plus, the FDA blocking the release of research supporting the safety of COVID and shingles vaccines. While one expert says that this may be putting Americans at risk.

And from iced attention to performing with one of country music's biggest stars, I'll be speaking with three Texas mariachi brothers about their journey from uncertainty to the spotlight.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from New York, this is CNN Newsroom with Polo Sandoval.

SANDOVAL: All right, let's go straight to the Middle East where a source says that Iran is expected to reply today to the U.S. proposal to end the war. And this is we learned that both sides have been moving slightly closer to an agreement on a short memo aimed at bringing this conflict to a close.

U.S. President Donald Trump has touted what he describes as good talks with Iran, saying that there's never a deadline for Iran to respond. He also warned that if a deal is not reached, the U.S. Will be bombing Iran at a, quote, much higher level than before.

In the Oval Office on Wednesday, the president said this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: I think we won. Now it's only a question of, look, if we left right now, Iran, it would take them 20 years to rebuild. You would call that we're in good shape, right? Fantastic. We're in good shape and now we're doing well.

Now we have to get what we have to get. If we don't do that, we'll have to go a big step further. But with that being said, they want to make a deal. We've had very good talks over the last 24 hours and it's very possible that we'll make a deal.

(END DIE COLIP)

SANDOVAL: And there appears to be at least one sticking point in negotiations, which has been the future security in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran says that safe passage through the Strait is possible under new procedures without explaining exactly what those procedures are.

CNN's correspondents are following all developments today. Paula Hancocks joining us from Abu Dhabi, and Eleni Giokos is standing by in Dubai.

Paula, I wonder if we can go straight to you. First, just tell us a little bit about what we may or may not know about the conditions of this current proposal.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Polo, what we're hearing at this point is from a source familiar with the situation talking about a one page memo that has been internally floating around in the United States.

Now, I have to caution that we don't know for sure the exact details on this, but this source familiar is saying that the premise of it is some of the key sticking points within these negotiations. So this memo effectively says there would be an end to the war, that there would be a 30-day negotiation period triggered in order to be able to finesse some of the stickier points and the harder to resolve issues between the U.S. and Iran.

Now it would obviously deal with the nuclear issue which the U.S. has been insistent on. So it would talk about the -- that the discussion of a moratorium on enriching uranium for Iran. Now we had heard in the past that the U.S. had been pushing for a 20-year moratorium. It appears from this, according to this source familiar, that it would be more than 10 years at least. We don't know exactly how long though.

And then of course, the issue of that highly enriched uranium stockpile that is still in Iran, the United States wants that to be moved to another country. And we're waiting to hear that Iranian response.

We've heard from the Foreign Ministry spokesperson saying that the U.S. plan and proposal is still under review by Iran. But certainly what we're hearing from the U.S. side and slightly from the Iranian side as well, is more positive than we have seen all week. When you bear in mind that we started this week with an escalation in hostilities with the U.S. and Iran, trading fire in the Straits of Hormuz, a number of vessels being caught out by that fire as well in the UAE here, Oman, coming under renewed attack by Iranian missiles and drones.

[04:05:14]

So what we're seeing now is definitely a step in the right direction, it would appear. Now we heard from the U.S. President Donald Trump on PBS News sounding optimistic, but he also said, I have been optimistic before. I thought we were there before. So let's just wait and see. So there is that caution, knowing that until this is, this is signed and done, it could still collapse. Polo?

SANDOVAL: Yes, it's absolutely amazing that any kind of hope for progress may hang on a single page as you report. Eleni Giokos, let's go to you now and just to get a sense of how markets are reacting with what maybe we could describe as renewed hopes that, that things could be advancing.

ELENI GIOKOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I mean, one thing is certain. Whenever there's sort of any kind of positive movement on talks or the diplomatic front, you see aggressive moves, specifically when it comes to financial markets. And what we're seeing in Asia, really strong movements, U.S. Futures also pointing to the upside.

But again, there's a big sort of reality check that, you know, many traders are focusing on and that we could see a big issue coming through with regards to whether Iran actually responds positively to this one page memorandum.

We're also seeing Brent crude and WTI prices coming under pressure today. So again, a move in the right direction. But again, the prognosis is by all accounts with many of the experts that I've spoken to, they're expecting Brent crude to hit around 130, $140 a barrel by the end of this month. If there is no resolution in the Strait of Hormuz and you can see Brent crude now just below $100 a barrel and really hinging on hopes that we'll see some kind of movement.

But importantly, I want to touch on what we're seeing in the Strait of Hormuz. I just got off the phone with Kepler that focuses on maritime traffic and they say there's been any barely any movement in the last few days.

Importantly, the only one tanker LNG tanker that was linked to Iran moved on Monday. Plus those two U.S. linked vessels that transited the strait during Project Freedom and then today as well as yesterday, no movement.

And this is because there's a lot of confusion around the process in terms of transiting given that Iran has now announced the Persian Gulf Strait Authority. They're trying to formalize their control over the Strait and again, confusion about what the protocol is going to be.

There's also a website as well that hasn't been populated by the Iranians as yet, but they're also saying there's a specific email address that vessels wanting to transit need to contact in order to get, you know, clearance. Again, Iran showing that the risks are still very much a reality in the strait.

We saw a tanker yesterday that was impacted by a projectile. And then this morning, the U.S. Navy targeted one Iranian-linked tanker, a vessel that they disabled as well. So it's still very much a maritime confrontation. As in the background, we're still seeing a continuation of potential talks.

SANDOVAL: Eleni Giokos and Paula Hancocks with some fresh reporting. Thank you both. Good to see you.

Here in the United States, a federal judge has unsealed a purported suicide note from Jeffrey Epstein.

The unverified and undated document was placed on the court docket in the case of a former cellmate of the late convicted sex offender who said that he had found it. The Justice Department indicated that it did not know if the note is legitimate as CNN's Katelyn Polantz reports.

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KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: A note that a cellmate of Jeffrey Epstein's says he discovered inside a book in 2019. That cellmate says this is the suicide note of Jeffrey Epstein in an attempt on his life where he tried to kill himself and did not succeed. He survived that suicide attempt and then later killed himself weeks later.

This note, the sort of thing that many, many people would have been wanting to see this earlier, that was not released by the Justice Department when they put out millions of files for transparency around Jeffrey Epstein, his time in jail, his death, as well as his crimes of sex trafficking.

But this note, it was in the hands of this cellmate for quite some time, seven years. And then the New York Times just in the last month or so went to court and said this should be released. This cellmate has been talking about it publicly. Here's a little bit more from that cellmate, Nicholas Tartaglione, a man who's serving life in prison for a quadruple murder. He was speaking to a podcaster earlier this year.

NICHOLAS TARTAGLIONE, JEFFREY EPSTEIN CELLMATE: It was in my book. Yeah. When I got back into the cell, I opened my book to read and there it was. And he wrote it and stuck it in the book.

And that was, I believe, the reason why he stopped saying because he didn't want to go to suicide watch, because I think his first thing was, oh, yes, he tried to blame me for attacking him.

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POLANTZ: But now this note in the public domain released by the judge and we can see what it looks like. This scribbled out words by supposedly Jeffrey Epstein. What the cellmate says was Epstein's handwriting. What it says is they investigated me for months, found nothing. So 15 year old charges resurrected. It is a treat to be able to choose one's time to say goodbye. What do you want me to do, burst out crying? No fun, not worth it.

Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL: Thank you, Katelyn. Meanwhile on the Hill, some House Democrats, they are calling for U.S. commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to resign following his testimony about his ties with Jeffrey Epstein.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. SUHAS SUBRAMANYAM (D-VA): Howard Lutnick should resign. That was absolutely mind boggling what we just heard in the room. He was evasive, nervous. He was dishonest. He would not admit to lying, which he clearly did. In the podcast, he said he was never in the room with Jeffrey Epstein ever again after the first time he met him.

Yet he then admitted that he was in the room with Jeffrey Epstein. I had to ask him whether he and I were in the same room just now because I couldn't understand his meaning of we were in the same room together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: Lutnick is the highest ranking Trump administration official prominently named in the Epstein files, of course, outside of the president himself. Lawmakers grilled Ludnick for more than four and a half hours behind closed doors on Wednesday about his multiple interactions with Epstein.

And that includes a 2012 visit to the convicted sex offender's infamous island in the Caribbean. And this was just years after he said to have after he was supposed to have cut ties with Epstein in 2005.

A Commerce spokesperson said that the secretary explained repeatedly that he did not have a relationship with Epstein. The White House has so far expressed confidence in Ludnick.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio arriving in Rome. The top American diplomat is scheduled to meet with Pope Leo at the Vatican today. They're expected to discuss the war with Iran as well as humanitarian aid to Cuba. His visit comes amid a string of critical comments from President Donald Trump.

Let's head over to CNN's Vatican correspondent Christopher Lamb. So, Christopher, tell us a bit about what we expect Secretary of State, Secretary of State to speak to the Pope about.

CHRISTOPHER LAMB, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Polo, we're expecting Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, to arrive shortly here into St. Peter's and go into the Vatican for a sit down meeting with Pope Leo.

And we expect a number of topics to be discussed. Of course, the war in Iran will be one of them, but also Cuba. The Vatican playing a strong diplomatic role in Cuba and of course, the Trump administration escalating the rhetoric about what might or might not happen with Cuba.

So I expect these topics to be on the table. Of course, this meeting comes at a time of extraordinary tension between the papacy and the White House with President Trump launching these extraordinary criticisms against Pope Leo, particularly around the pope's, you know, outspoken opposition to the war in Iran and the president saying that Pope Leo is happy for Iran to have a nuclear weapon.

The pope responding to that on Tuesday night, saying that the Catholic Church has long spoken out against nuclear weapons. So the pope subtly responding there to President Trump, but also saying that, you know, people are free to criticize him but to do so truthfully.

So I think this meeting comes at a time of real tension and of this clash between the first American pope and a U.S. president. And Pope Leo has during his almost one year pontificate because, of course, tomorrow, Friday, he celebrates one year since his election. He has been something of a counterweight to the Trump administration. It's not just on the war that he's spoken at, is also on immigration, on the environment.

His papacy does stand in stark contrast to the leadership of President Trump.

SANDOVAL: That support widely used. All right, CNN's Christopher Lamb with that live report from Rome. Thank you. As we watch together that meeting and still to come here on CNN Newsroom, a new theory on the origin of a deadly antivirus outbreak on a cruise ship will what officials are saying.

Plus, the FDA is accused of blocking several studies that supported widely used vaccines from being published. I'll be speaking with a doctor about what this means for patients.

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SANDOVAL: All right, we do want to get you some information. That's just into CNN. Reuters is quoting the Dutch Health Ministry as saying that a Dutch woman has been admitted to a hospital in Amsterdam and this after showing possible symptoms of the of a hantavirus infection.

A broadcaster RTL reporting that the woman is a flight attendant at Dutch airline KLM and she had reportedly been in contact with a woman who died from a hantavirus infection in Johannesburg. And this comes as the cruise ship at the center of the hantavirus outbreak is currently en route to the Canary Islands as CNN's Randi Kaye reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) DR. MARIA VAN KERKHOVE, DIRECTOR FOR EPIDEMIC AND PANDEMIC PREPAREDNESS AND PREVENTION, WHO: This was an expedition boat and many of the people on board were doing bird watching.

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Turns out a bird watching tour may be the source of this hantavirus outbreak.

According to the Associated Press, two Argentine officials investigating how this started said their government is leaning toward the idea that a Dutch couple contracted the virus while bird watching in the city of Ushuaia, Argentina, before boarding the ship.

The AP reports the couple visited a landfill during the tour and may have been exposed to infected rodents. That 70-year-old Dutch man was the first to die on the ship days after they left port in Argentina. His 69-year-old wife died about two weeks later.

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The rest of the people on board, including nearly 150 passengers, are now on a three to four-day journey from Cape Verde to Tenerife in the Canary Islands. Spain has agreed to receive the ship there. Upon arrival, the plan is for all passengers to be taken to a nearby airport and sent back to their home countries.

The 14 Spanish citizens will be examined and go directly into quarantine at a Madrid hospital.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): This is the country of Cape Verde in front of us, but it is forbidden to go down to it.

KAYE (voice-over): This travel vlogger on board posted on social media about the predicament they now find themselves in.

KASEM HATO, MV HONDIAS PASSENGER (through translator): Today was supposed to be the last day of our 35 day trip on the Atlantic. But it is clear that our journey will not end here because Cape Verde refused to receive us on its coast.

KAYE (voice-over): Earlier, this medical evacuation boat removed three sick people from the ship on their way to the Netherlands. A source from Spain's health ministry told CNN that Morocco refused to let the plane carrying two of the evacuees land to refuel. Instead, it made an unscheduled landing at Gran Canaria Airport to do so.

KERKHOVE: People are usually infected through contact with infected rodents or their urine, their droppings or their saliva. Human to human transmission is uncommon.

KAYE (voice-over): Yet in this case, the World Health Organization believes the virus may have been transmitted person to person on board following lab test confirmed this is the Andes strain of the virus which has spread among close contacts before.

KERKHOVE: We're also working with authorities for anyone that has left the ship. KAYE (voice-over): In fact, the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health has confirmed that a passenger who traveled on the first leg of the voyage and disembarked at St Helena on April 24 has now tested positive for hantavirus.

That passenger, according to the cruise company, is being treated at a hospital in Zurich. His wife, who was with him, has not shown symptoms, but is self-isolating as a precaution. Randi Kaye, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL: Now to the latest move in the Trump administration's efforts to sow doubt about the safety and efficacy of vaccines. The New York Times is reporting that the Food and Drug Administration has blocked the publication of several studies having to do with the safety of COVID and shingles vaccines.

FDA scientists led this research, reviewing millions of patient records, and the studies ended up costing millions of dollars in public funds. And they also found that serious side effects were quite rare.

Shoshana Ungerleider is a doctor of internal medicine and the host of the TED Health Podcast. Dr. Ungerleider, thank you so much for being with us.

DR. SHOSHANA UNGERLEIDER, FOUNDER, ENDWELLPROJECT.ORG: Thank you so much for having me.

SANDOVAL: Doctor, I'm curious if I can get just your early assessment of this reported blocking of these publications of these studies. I mean, what is your sense of what these studies reveal about any possible risks that may come with either COVID or shingles vaccines?

UNGERLEIDER: You know, Polo, what's important to understand is that these were very large real world safety studies involving millions of vaccinated patients. FDA scientists worked with outside data firms to analyze the electronic health records and other large data sets to look for serious side effects after COVID and shingles vaccination. And the findings were quite reassuring. So serious adverse events were actually rare.

One COVID vaccine analysis found a very rare risk of severe allergic reaction. About one in a million Pfizer recipients otherwise didn't identify major safety signals at all. Another observational CDC study that was paused from publication found updated COVID vaccines reduce emergency visits by about 50 percent and hospitals by about 55 percent. So I think there are actually two conversations here.

One is about the data itself, which generally reinforce what we already understood about vaccine safety and the effectiveness. And the other one's about transparency. Science works best when studies are openly published, reviewed and discussed. And that transparency is how we build public trust and help people make informed decisions about their health. SANDOVAL: And so without that transparency, without that data in your assessment, doctor, do you see this resulting in some very real consequences or risks for Americans who don't get these, you know, access to these studies?

UNGERLEIDER: Oh, absolutely. I mean, I think that's the big issue here, right? So, for example, with the shingles vaccine, the studies found that serious side effects, again, were rare. There was a small increased risk of some something called Guillain-Barre syndrome, which is already listed on the vaccine label and has been really closely monitored.

But overall, again, the evidence to continue to support that the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks for most adults.

[04:25:00]

And this really matters because shingles itself can be incredibly painful and debilitating, especially as we age, leading to chronic nerve pain, even hospitalization and complications that really affect people's quality of life. And then something really interesting here.

There are several large studies have now suggested the shingles vaccine may also be associated with a lower risk of dementia later in life. So we're still learning exactly why that might be. And it's important to say that it does not prove the vaccine prevents dementia, but the findings have been remarkably consistent.

And so this is a reminder that the vaccines are not just about preventing one infection in one moment in time. Right. They can also influence long term healthy aging in ways that I think we're only beginning to understand. So without this information out in the public eye, that can lead to huge issues down the road.

SANDOVAL: And that brings us to the question of why the FDA would have blocked this information. I do want to share with our viewers what the HHS spokesperson told CNN, saying that the studies were withdrawn because the authors drew broad conclusions that were not supported by the underlying data, according to the government that the FDA, as they said, acted to protect the integrity of its scientific process.

In your view, what do you see as the current state of the FDA? I mean, as you know, I'm sure it's faced a surge criticism from even drug companies when it comes to its drug approval process.

UNGERLEIDER: Yes, a little hard for me to say exactly what's going on over there. It's not something I do on a day to day basis. But I do think it's important for viewers to know that good science isn't about pretending something is perfect. Right. It's about honestly weighing risks and benefits.

And so it's okay to bring questions up if you're confused about what to do. There's so much conflicting information out there. FDA is saying one thing. CDC is deleting papers. Maybe even your own doctor is asking questions. It's OK to bring these things up to your doctor. Medicine is personal. Your age, your medical history and your risk factors all really matter.

And I do think that the science continues to support vaccines are safe and effective. Certainly it's an individual discussion, but it's important for people to know that disagreement in science is normal.

Healthy debate is part of the process. I think researchers challenge methods and questions and conclusions and ask for better evidence all the time. And what builds trust is not the absence of disagreement, it's transparency. And that's what we need here.

SANDOVAL: Yes, it's such an important point to close on. Dr. Shoshana Ungerleider, thank you so much for letting us tap into your expertise.

UNGERLEIDER: Thank you for having me.

SANDOVAL: Multiple homes have been destroyed in the last few hours in Mississippi after at least two tornadoes swept through parts of the state. State emergency crews, they're having to navigate all this debris and fallen trees as they tried to make some of those rescues.

And Mississippi, just one of several states across the southeastern United States and beyond feeling the effects of this severe weather. Here's Binya.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 55 Southbound. It's crazy.

REID BINION, CNN REPORTER (voice-over) Multiple tornadoes ripped through Mississippi overnight, leaving a trail of destroyed homes and injured victims in their wake.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That (INAUDIBLE) right through there, bro. We can't even get through here bro.

BINION (voice-over): One massive twister toppling trees and blocking parts of a highway.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It knocked all this down. No power lines or nothing out this way.

BINION (voice-over): The storms also knocked down power lines with tens of thousands of homes and businesses across Mississippi without power as of late Wednesday, according to poweroutage.us.

Collapsed trees also blocking the roadway next to a hard hit mobile home park. There were also reports of residents trapped, but dangerous conditions slowed rescue efforts, authorities said. The extreme weather impacted large portions of the south, including thunderstorms and at one point a flood watch in place for more than 10 million people.

Parts of Alabama saw severe flooding. In Montgomery, Wednesday, the state house had to be evacuated because of flooding during local storms. This as other regions struggled to recover from severe weather in their communities. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Coming back in, we still had 6 inches of water

around the house.

BINION (voice-over): Residents in parts of Wisconsin picking up the pieces as water levels start returning to normal after last month's flooding.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At one point there was three feet of water in there from just from looking at flood lines.

BINION (voice-over): I'm Reid Binion reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL: And Americans are looking for any news that could mean lower gas prices. Why they may not fall anytime soon even if we see an end to the war.

Also why Democrats in the U.S. state of Virginia are crying foul over an FBI raid at the office and business of a state senator.

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